Frazier Campbell on Régis Le Bris, Granit Xhaka, Darren Bent, Steve Bruce and Sunderland's season
Sunderland host Everton at the Stadium of Light on Monday evening...
Sky Sports pundits Jamie Carragher and Jonny Evans have delivered their verdict on Sunderland’s stellar start to the Premier League season, identifying the factors that have helped the Black Cats to open up a notable gap between themselves and the relegation zone at this early stage.
Regis Le Bris’ men host Everton on Monday evening, and could move up to second in the table with a victory over their visitors. But before the contest got underway, Carragher and former Sunderland loanee Evans ran the rule over the top flight new boys.
On Sunderland’s surprise start to the season...
When asked if he was a little surprised by Sunderland’s electric start to the campaign, Evans said: “100%, and I think everyone's obviously delighted they're back in the top flight. Massive club, massive fan base, but to see them where they are now is probably blowing everyone away. You could probably look at the fixture list. We spoke before, Jamie, about the fact that you've still got to win them. It probably looks slightly easier, but getting a win away at Chelsea, you still have to win the matches and they've got off to a great start, but maybe a few more difficult games coming up in the future.”
On Sunderland’s points tally compared to other impressive newly promoted clubs...
Carragher was then shown a graphic of how well Sunderland’s tally of 17 points from their opening nine matches compares to other eye-catching newly promoted sides from the Premier League era, to which he responded: “It guarantees you stay up, and listen, it’s the start of the season - let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Sunderland made a brilliant start, could go second tonight if they get the results that they want, but the name of the game for any promoted team right now is to stay in the Premier League. Now, because of the great start, they may not accept that and think, ‘Okay, we'd look back and think after a great start, we faulted too much maybe in the second half of the season’ [if they finished just above the relegation zone]. But the most important thing for Sunderland right now is not to get too carried away and make sure you are a Premier League club next season.”
On Sunderland’s recruitment...
Turning his attention to Sunderland’s wide-reaching summer recruitment drive, Evans said: “Yeah, I mean, it's big... [Granit] Xhaka is the only one really with Premier League experience there. And you've probably looked at them before - their recruitment model was probably signing younger players, maybe selling them on. But now they've got the Premier League, they probably know they need experience. And well, Xhaka's the only one with Premier League experience. But they've tried to add probably a little bit of physicality and taken the age bracket of the team up in order to compete.”
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On the “ruthless” nature of Sunderland’s recruitment drive...
Carragher was also quizzed on whether the decision to oust the likes of Anthony Patterson, Dan Neil, and Luke O’Nien from the starting XI represented a “ruthless” streak in Sunderland’s approach, to which he replied: “You've got to be ruthless. You have to be. Especially when you're coming up into the Premier League. We want to see young lads who've done well in the Championship for any team given the opportunity, and I'm sure that will come at some stage. You've just mentioned maybe the players that could be missing next month with AFCON.
“And when you think of what's happened in the Premier League in these last two years, in terms of the promoted teams going back down, we've got to go back, I think, to Steve Cooper, when he came up with Nottingham Forest, and Nottingham Forest staying in the Premier League for the last manager to do that. Now, you have to be ruthless. That couldn't continue. And it wasn't just the teams going down, it was the fact they weren't competitive at all. There was no relegation fight the last two years. Now, Sunderland will not end up in the position that they are right now, unfortunately, for Sunderland supporters, but they've made a brilliant start, and what they've got to be, as they have been most of this season, is really competitive in every game.”
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